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The care we provide our patients is not limited to a hospital stay. Our IU Health team aims to provide patients with the assistance to pay bills online, fill a prescription, request medical records, enroll in clinical trials, prepare for a visit, and much more.

Indiana University Health Transplant provides a full range of services for our pancreas, intestine, liver, kidney, multivisceral, heart and lung transplant patients, as well as our adult congenital and ventricular assist device patients.

Patients come to IU Health for our highly skilled surgeons and advanced operating facilities. As a transplant team, we provide comprehensive transplant services resulting in excellent outcomes and national recognition. We are committed to continuous quality improvement, demonstrated by our surgical, medical and interventional outcomes, as well as clinical research activity and high patient volumes.

Our tradition of providing high-level care starts with our highly skilled physicians focused on the unique needs of these complex patients. We offer the most technologically advanced facilities and a team approach toward patient care, including a strong partnership with our referring physicians. As a state and regional referral resource for the most complex and advanced disease problems, we are the only program in Indiana approved by Medicare to perform lung and heart-lung transplantation.

Together with the Indiana University School of Medicine, we provide unparalleled experience in transplant research and innovation. According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), IU Health Transplant programs are among the top in the nation based on number of transplants performed in 2013. Research has shown hospitals that perform the greatest number of organ transplant procedures generally have higher success rates and better patient outcomes.

In 2012, Indiana University Health University Hospital was designated as a Blue Distinction Center by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield for our transplant services. People travel from around the world for our surgical transplant care and short wait times.

Patients with existing or impending end-stage renal disease may be eligible for a kidney transplant. If your doctor determines you are eligible, a transplant surgeon at IU Health University Hospital will personally review each potential donor for a viable match. We are committed to finding appropriate donor kidneys for patients, often traveling across the country to evaluate an organ for transplant. This shortens our wait list times, providing patients with grafts earlier in the disease process.

The kidney desensitization program at IU Health is steroid-free. This allows us to accept patients who were once considered ineligible for a kidney transplant. We also use pulsatile machine perfusion for better organ preservation before surgery to significantly improve the chance of a successful kidney transplant.

In addition, IU Health has constructed eight kidney transplant outreach clinics across the state of Indiana to provide convenient pre-transplant and post-transplant care. A few of these clinics use advanced video-conferencing technology (telemedicine) to allow "tele-appointments" with IU Health specialists in Indianapolis. Thanks to these clinics, patients no longer have to make long road trips to see an IU Health kidney specialist.

Patients who receive kidneys from a living donor have a much better long-term survival rate. IU Health pioneered the use of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy to ease the procedure for living kidney donors. We take great pride in educating patients and donors about their options. To learn more about how to donate a kidney, please review our living kidney donation guide or email us at transplantinfo@iuhealth.org.

IU Health is one of only a few healthcare systems in the country that performs intestine and multivisceral transplants. We performed the first isolated intestine transplant in Indiana in 2003 and the first multivisceral transplant in the state the same year. Ranked number one in the nation by volume for intestinal transplant surgery in 2011, IU Health has unparalleled experience with both routine and complicated cases. If you have one of the following conditions, you may be eligible for an intestinal multivisceral transplant:

Our liver transplant program is one of the top in the nation. With outstanding survival rates, we serve the highest volume of liver transplant patients in the five-state region. We offer shorter wait times (2 1/2 months versus the 11-month average) and faster recovery times—a result of advanced surgical techniques. Patients referred for liver transplant are typically those with acute or chronic liver failure, primary liver malignancies and metabolic or genetic disorders. These disorders could include:

As a top-ranked transplant program, IU Health was the first in Indiana to perform a pancreas transplant and a simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplant, as well as the first in the world to perform a simultaneous liver/pancreas transplant. We perform more pancreas transplants than any other hospital in the country, providing our patients with wait times of approximately two months.

The pancreas transplant team at IU Health University Hospital is available for personal, one-on-one meetings with patients and their families. These informative meetings give patients an opportunity to ask as many questions as they wish. This personal setting can help patients who are nervous become more comfortable about transplant options.